


Justice Royalty

by Jason_Jay_C



Category: Batman (Comics), DCU (Comics), Justice League & Justice League Unlimited (Cartoons), Superman (Comics), Superman/Batman (Comics), Teen Titans (Comics), Young Justice (Cartoon), Young Justice (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Royalty, F/F, F/M, M/M, Multi, Slow Build, Yaoi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-09-25
Updated: 2015-01-14
Packaged: 2018-02-18 19:16:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 13,652
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2359259
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jason_Jay_C/pseuds/Jason_Jay_C
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Royalty AU</p><p>Kon-El is a prince of the Kingdom of Krypton and he and his friends had discovered a mystery in the Sea. Why was everyone hiding the secret of the Fallen Kingdom? Was it for the sake of burying the bloody past? Or to prevent the unwanted future? </p><p>The sky is dimming red and the wings are just beginning to spread.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Fallen King

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prologue

The Fallen King

A King, he is the one who carries the weight of the world on his shoulders.

A King, _le Roi_ , the one who must look after his Kingdom and protect his people.

A King, he is the one who provides the light within the darkness for his people.

The King, the Fallen King, he is the King that his people needed, but does not deserved.

Yet, honourable King, how far have you fallen? You fight for the innocence among the corrupted.

 

His Kingdom, when the golden orb sleeps,

fell into the dark, drowned in fear and hopelessness.

Leave behind your dreams and happiness

within the daylight embrace.

 

For His Highness rose when the Court Jester beckoned his attention.

 

His sword kept sharpened by the Kingdom Blacksmith.

 

His immortality granted through the Forest Nymph’s poisons.

 

O Fallen King, how He had suffered!

Challenged, He was, by His Judgement, Humanity and Spirit.

The Beasts of the Dark and Night,

for even Winter himself knocked on the Kingdom’s Door.

 

O fall, fall my King! Your time has ended.

Yield your sword, yield your immortality,

and let your heart sleep for eternity!

Leave behind your legacy, to your successors.

 

Let the song of dawn arouse the Kingdom after the Dark.

 

You are safe, dearest King.

 

-Anonymous-

 

 

* * *

  

 _**An anonymous poem slipped in a black leather journal.**_  

 

_**A hopeful beginning?**_

 

_**Or was this an ending of a sad tale?** _

 

 


	2. The Kingdom

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dwelling into the home and life of the Krypton Heir Kon-El: trying to fit in, to be accepted and at the same time, to be happy. But when power breeds hostility, who will burn the brightest?

The Kingdom

 

 

         In a land as far as the horizon ended, there flourishes a kingdom basked in the glow of the rising and the setting of the Sun: the Kingdom of Krypton. It is one of the four land emerged victorious of the recently ended War of the Tower; a devastating loss for each kingdom, more so, to the victims of war. In the heart of the Kingdom, surrounded by lush farms and livestock, lies the Golden City. And further within the City is the Metropolis of the nobles. On the highest ground of the area stood a Castle of Silver and Glass, wide as an infinite mirror, and sturdier than a fort of pure steel.

Here, we find the youngest Prince and Heir of the Kingdom, Kon-El, on his knees in respect for his King, Kal-El of Krypton House of El. By his King sides, stood the King advisers: J’onn J’onzz of the Gifted and Olsen of the Citizens. The Throne Chamber was silent and empty of everyone but them. The Prince knew the reason for the impromptu audience, which had become something of a norm since his coming of age celebration a few months back. He knows it, and so does his disappointed King: He had abused his gift once more.

It was known throughout the land and beyond of the remarkable “gift” of the House of El. A heretic gift which embodied god-like strength, penetrating sights, and the wings of Heaven. It was a gift that was envied and desired by many. It was also one of the triggers of the previous wars across the land. Now, there are left only three who inherited this gift of power: the King, The Princess and finally, the Heir who had awoken the gift on his 15th year of birth. Still young and inexperienced, it was a struggle for the young man to contain his thirst for adventure and the world of battle from the effect of his gift. This very struggle was what had cost him the King’s anger.

“How,” The King began, “How much more must I tolerate your temper in order for you to listen to me?” Hearing no reply from his Heir, the King continued with growing frustration. “Kon-El, your disobedience is becoming a hindrance to your development. For that reason, you will stop your battle training for the moment and stay within the castle walls. Kara will be looking over your academic studies.” A smile was tossed to the young man. “Listen, I understand that you’re going through something rough. But trust me, once you focused on your studies-“

“You can’t lock me in here!”

The Prince’s outburst was so sudden that the two silent advisers each positioned in defense. One human hand on a sword hilt and a pair of glowing white eyes trained on him. The Heir as well began to rise to his feet; his fist cracked and his deep blue eyes set in a harsh glare. The tension in the room spiked as the air gained a burning sensation and the trio are locked in a glaring match. King Kal-El frowned and sighed, his head shook sadly. “This won’t do, Kon. Your action proved that you are still too young to leave Metropolis. Let alone the Golden City. From here on out, stay within the castle walls.” He ended his words with a sense of finality and the advisers both calmed and regained their positions.

Yet the burning in the air did not cease. Prince Kon showed his disapproval of the King’s judgement on him, he was not satisfied, and he damned well knew he had the power to object: physically and legally speaking. But he recognized the signs of retreat and defeat. He understood very well, that if he went against the King once more, contrary to the past, he will not be forgiven any longer. Neither by the citizens of Krypton nor even, by himself. He will be left alone without any support. He should be _grateful_ of his King’s kindness; as his tutors had been telling him, again and again. He was merely an _un_ grateful charity case.

Fist clenched tight, gritted jaw, and a stiff bow: “Yes, my King…”

Once Kon exited the chamber, the air became light and easier to breathe in. Olsen took a stuttering deep breath as he faltered in his stance. “Sire, you must teach him to control that… that _absurd_ gift of his.” The King was silent, either in disappointment or anger, and the ginger sighed deeply. A brief eye contact and a nod by J’onn towards King Kal-El and the green adviser vanished from sight. Olsen struggled to hide his frustration due to his respect for him but, he was never good at holding back.

“Please do not tell me that you just sent J’onn to _spy_ on the kid?”

“As you yourself had requested, I am keeping an eye on his _absurd_ gift.”

“I asked you to _teach_ him. Not… locking him away so he would figure it out eventually! Clark, you know better.” Olsen furiously scratched his head. “I can always act as your adviser, but don’t forget that I am also your friend, just as all of us once were… or are…”

The young adviser almost jumped when the King suddenly stood up.

“I thank you for your advice, Jimmy. I will keep it in mind.” Olsen smiled but he felt wary as his King walked slowly towards the west hallway. Before he could say more the King continued.

“I hope, after this episode, you will also keep in mind to stop calling me by that name.”

The words echoed loudly within the chamber walls and in the ears of Adviser Jimmy Olsen as he watched his friend- his King- _the_ King of Krypton leave towards the Royal Archive. As the door closed, Olsen left through the opposite hallway. He needed to find the Princess so she could take care of the Heir.

He should also inform the day’s event to the Queen.

 

_The King had immersed himself in work once again._

_The Princess needed to postpone her visit to the Amazon in order to tend to the Heir in his academic lesson. Probably with his training too._

_And Prince Kon-El almost used his telekinesis on others, including the King. Again._

 

As Olsen walked across a glass bridge towards the Queen’s personal study, he could see the whole of the city and the Gateway. He also noticed, the clouds of brown dust trailing from the horizon, through the gate and heading towards the castle. He mentally added another report into his list.

 

_The Royal Guardian of Keystone had arrived for the monthly meeting._

 

 “Guards, prepared the ‘ _Flash_ squad’ and do not allow our youngest guest to leave the city with or without the Prince.” The addressed guards saluted and disappeared down the hall. They certainly missed the adviser’s dejected muttering.

“Maybe _this time_ , our Royal Army could actually _prove_ the legitimacy of their battle certificate… ”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What is hidden behind a name?
> 
> Names are actually a very important aspect in a human (or non-human) life. It is an identity, a personality, and a life by itself. A name carries the person's goal, ambition and memories. To have a name is to acknowledge an existence that wants something in their life. To abandon a name is to forget and moving on.


	3. The Heir

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Meeting with a friend is always a breath of fresh air. Discovering relics of history, Kon and Bart will finally get the adventure story they've been waiting ages for!

The Heir

 

“Announcing, the arrival of Flash Guardian II of Keystone Kingdom; Flash Barry Allen.”

A tall, lithe man with wheat-blonde hair dressed in pure red walked calmly into the Throne Chamber, smiling pleasantly to King Kal-El who returned the gesture. The King walked down the altar and grabbed Allen’s arm in greetings. “It’s great to see you again, Barry.” Allen scoffed. “I’ve been coming over to your castle for months now; do you still need to do all that announcements stuff?”

King Kal-El smiled at the simple tease and greeted the young teen standing behind Allen. “How are you then, Wally? I haven’t seen you for a couple of months.”

Wallace West, the Heir Guardian of Keystone, bowed in respect. “Pardon my absences, my patrol squad had discovered several new hideouts of the Exiles and I needed to lead them.” The King stiffened. Allen grabbed his shoulder firmly. “That will be the main topic of our meeting this month. So let’s get started, shall we?”

“Wait.”

Kal-El looked around, looking and listening. “Where’s your son?”

Allen looked at West knowingly and sighed. “Probably where he had always prefer to be… With your heir.”

Kal-El sighed loudly, completely unbefitting for a King, but quickly regained himself. “Apparently, Barry, they both had just left the Metropolis and at the rate that your son is going with Kon… They’ll be crossing the Kingdom border in 5 minutes.” Both men grumbled loudly as the same “Not again…” was muttered.

West cleared his throat loudly catching their attention. “If you don’t mind… I could run and get them back.” He said casually. Kal-El looked at Barry who was actually considering it carefully. Nonetheless, Wally was given permission to get the two princes back. “Remember, don’t force yourself, Wally. If you’re tired from running just stop ‘cause we-”

“I know I won’t catch up to him fast enough. But I can still get them. Don’t worry.” Wally left the chamber in strides leaving the two leaders. Kal-El noticed that Barry looked stun. The blond scratched his head. “I was actually referring to your healing…wounds…” Kal-El gently guided the worried Guardian towards the archive.

“Come on, you will have _that_ talk with Wally when he gets back. For now, I need all the details about that mission…”

___________________________________________________________________________

-Krypton Kingdom East Border-

         A trail of dust cloud crossed across farms and green fields. Two boys could be seen running side by side at speed faster than a blink of the eye. Or half a blink of an eye. The sound of their joyous voices could only be heard by them. They ran past the Krypton borders with ease, ignoring the guards they knew were glaring at their dust cloud.

“Okay, Okay, Okay!! Lets’s zigzag through the forest and handstand back to your room! Up for it?!”

A young brunette, Bart Allen, turned his body around and ran in reverse so he was face-to-face with his friend. Kon snorted as he jumped over stray rocks. “Zigzag and handstand?! Come on, Kid!! Where’s the little daredevil in you?! Let’s go till we reach the sea!!” He shouted and ran faster passed the laughing speedster.

“Sweet! Running AND swimming!! Best second yet!!”

Just as they smelt the salt in the air, both princes felt their legs caught on to something and tumbled harshly across the rocky plains. Kon skidded a bit but Bart was almost close to the cliff looming over the violent sea. Their painful groans were answered by a disgruntled ‘tsk’.

“Guys, like seriously. Are we gonna be doing this every time both of you met?” Wally sat heavily on a patch of grass between Kon and Bart. Kon noticed he was controlling his irregular breathing and heartbeat. Wally began to lounge and enjoyed the ocean view when he asked.

“So what were you two thinking of coming to the seaside? Bart, I told you about the Exiles so you would be more careful! Not running around doing **this,** unsupervised and all!” The older boy sighed heavily as he realized his audience were totally not listening.

_‘Kids_.’

Just as Wally decided to get up and drag them back, Bart stood up with a shout and pointed towards the sea. “Guys! Look at that huge thing in the middle of the sea!!” Kon and Wally cringed at his loudness but tried to look at what he mentioned.

Kon squinted to look passed the fog and saw it. “That’s not a huge thing in the middle of the sea, Bart. It’s an island.” As he said that, his mind reeled. “Weird, I don’t remember any island this close to shore of Krypton.”

“That’s the Eastern Archipelago.” Wally interjected. “It may look like an island from here but from what I learnt, it’s a network of islands, connected and isolated which are uninhibited due to mass destruction during the Tower War period.”

Kon and Bart nodded in awe. The youngest stared at Wally disbelievingly. “That many land without any kingdom fighting over it? Are you serious??” He received a solemn nod and returned to stared at the shadow of the land.

“Kingdoms had fought for the rights of that archipelago but hell, did your dad refused that proposal, Kon.” A subtle twitched of the Kyptonian’s demeanour went unnoticed by the two. “King Kal-El had debated that the land was too dangerous and hazardous due to a great battle there. If I’m not mistaken, the Tower of Justice was designed and planned to be build there. The land was soon targeted by the Exiles who fought against warriors that were formed under the same ideology: justice and peace.” Wally sighed dreamily as both Kon and Bart looked at him anxiously.

“Then, the rest is history. Warriors won, Exiles exiled and Kingdoms created.” Kon and Bart slacked jaw once Wally turned around ordering them to return to the Castle.

“Waitwaitwaitwait!!! Wally!! That’s it??!”

“Dude!! We were so into that storytelling!! Come on, tell us more!”

Wally smirked. “You two will learn it soon in history lesson. So let’s not waste any more time. Uncle Barry told me to get you not tutor you. That’s Princess Kara’s job.” Bart was already reluctantly walking back but Kon kept looking at the sea.

“Well, could you at least tell us the name of that dark land?”

Kon waited impatiently as Wally scratched his chin trying to recall the name. “I can’t remember the name of the land before it breaks into small islands… but I know the last kingdom governing a third of the land was called.” Kon nodded and irritatingly urged him to continue.  Bart was already vibrating in excitement.

“Well, it was called the Kingdom of Gotham: the land of The Bat.”  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When will you listen?
> 
> Humans are strange creatures in a sense that they listen when they should not be and turn deaf when they were needed. There are also those who believe they know the words that will be uttered; these people are idiots.  
> Take your time, seat down together, get their attention, and listen to them.   
> Be the listening party once in a while.


	4. The Princess

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Returning from the Sea, Kon contemplates his complex relationship with the members of House of El. Mainly, the Princess of the Kingdom, Kara, who always had a short fuse when it comes to him. She likes to dress up, she travels whenever she wanted, she's smart and is completely the perfect heiress to the throne. And Kon bears the brunt of all her perfection.

The Princess

 

         Dinnertime in the Banquet Hall had always been a memorable occasion. Even now, as Wally, Bart and Kon sat beneath the ceiling of sparkling stars, comets and planets, they were still showered by the splendor traditional gourmet of the kingdom. The hall was especially made to reflect the world beyond the blue sky and scattered with Krypton’s silver crystals. Only guests of the allied kingdoms were given the privileged to view the world as seen by Kryptonians, but Wally and Bart were already used to it.

Crystal cutleries, golden furniture, and satin curtains surrounded the guests as more food and drinks were served to the family of speedsters. Kon ate his dinner quietly not only because Bart was too busy devouring his dinner while competing with Wally and even Barry, but mostly because he was forced to seat between the King and his cousin due to his actions several hours before. He swore, as much as Kal annoy him, Kara Zor-El was by millennium, the worst.

“Oh for Rao sake, Kon don’t slouch when you eat!”

“Kon, eat more of your greens. You’re building up fats.”

“Use the knife properly, don’t stab through your plate!”

Kon grumbled through her complaints with absolutely no fucks given. Like he said: **the worst**.

The young boy glanced at Kal as he conversed softly with the Queen of Krypton then he made a scowl when he saw Lois and Kal laughed albeit silently. It always struck him as weird to see the King with any other expression than a blank look or a disappointed frown, but every time Lois came into the room, this laughing _stranger_ suddenly appeared. Jealousy was a strong word; more like perplexed or confusion. Was the King a stranger to everyone when the Queen is at his side, or was he a stranger to them when _Kon_ was in his presence?

Was it his fault that the King is so cold? 

Kon bit his lip as he mumbled out, “I **didn’t** do anything.”

He was slapped across the head harshly by Kara.

“Kon-El, you just sliced through the table!!

___________________________________________________________________________

-Study Hall, an hour after dinner-

         As agreed between him and Kal, as punishment, Kon now had study session wth Kara every day after dinner with training after breakfast and lunch throughout the whole visit of the Flash that month with one sole condition by him: Bart must also suffer along. Kal and Flash Barry were quite reluctant to agree but that was when he used his hidden card.

He might be ‘perplexed’ by Lois Lane, but he sure as hell like that woman: she was way more powerful than any last Kryptonians combined!

Lois might be strict and stubborn when she was ticked off, but she understood a lot about Kon. She understood why he wanted to go across the border, why he likes to defy Kal and also why he gets bored easily. Once she had laughed and said, "You're so much like him but you follow after me more, don't you, kid?" She didn't really explained to him what she had meant though, but he made her laughed!

Even right then, she understood why he wanted Bart to be with him for his punishment. Kal, for once, reluctantly agreed to her persistence nags and Barry kindly permitted for Bart to stay with Kon, not like there was any objection from the kid. But boy, was there a tantrum by the princess who was successfully ignored by the Monarchs.

“I can’t believe they didn’t inform me on this little ‘arrangement’!” Kara shouted as Bart ran through the thousands of bookshelves and Kon work on his homework. “I hope you are appreciating this, Kon. Because this is the last time I would cancel any of my plans to tend to YOUR problem!” Kon rolled his eyes in annoyance and unfortunately for him, Kara caught it.

With a fist through the table and an angry unladylike growl, Kara screamed at Kon. “For once in your life, Kon, think about something other than yourself!” Her voice was effectively echoed through the great hall. Some guards at the door bravely pushed the main door to observe the commotion before quietly return to his pose. Kon, on the other hand, adamantly ignored the seething Princess. As always.

But this time was different. This time, they had a hyperactive speedster in the room with them.

Bart sped straight in between the two Kryptonians while waving an old book around in triumph. “Kon! Kon! Kon!! I found it!! It was hidden way behind some shelves and in a secret compartment, but I found it!!!!” He jumped around in glee and as serious as the situation between them were a second ago, Kon and Kara could not bring themselves to be mad around Bart.

“Alright, stop bouncing and start showing what you got there, Bart.”

Bart dropped the black leather book onto the table. With a great exaggerating gesture, he announced: “I present to you the one and only, documents about the Bat of Gotham Kingdom!”

Kon’s eyes widened as he hastily grabbed the book in disbelief. “We got things about the Eastern islands here? How come I didn’t know about this?!” Bart made a few scolding noises towards Kon. “No, no, no. I told you right? It’s the documents about **the Bat**. I already scanned through it a while ago.” Bart nodded smugly.

Kon ignored him and went to unbound the book but just as he was reaching for the black string, Kara snatched it away. “Kara! Give it back! I need it!” The Heir fumed and was a moment from using his ‘forbidden’ gift, when Kara suddenly grabbed both Kon and Bart. With her super-strength and flight, the three of them left the Study Hall through one of the grand windows and she flew them to the highest bell tower and into the belfry.

Upon arriving there, Kon and Bart were unceremoniously dropped on to the floor. Grunting in pain and annoyance, Kon was about to lash out in anger again but stopped when he saw the interior of the belfry. He had never been up the belfry, there never seem to be any reason for anyone to be there unless to maintain the bells.  

But there in front of him, was like a smaller, private study room where there were a table full of notes and a handful of worn-out books. A rod of silver crystals was set on the table probably for night-lights and there were a small couch comfortable to settle into. And Kara was perfectly comfortable at making herself at home on it: she was already bouncing on the couch as she investigated the leather book. Bart was already running around exploring as Kon made his way to her. Angrily, mind you.

“Give it back, we found it first.”

“Technically, Bart founded it.”

“Who cares?! He showed it to **me** first!”

“Where did you two heard about the Bat?”

Bart immediately appeared next to Kon. “From Wally! He was giving this really short lesson about several islands in the East we found while we were racing each other and it was so cool like there were shadows above the sea so we asked for more stories of the Bat but he said it was not his job and said that you would be the one to tell us later!” One breath explanation, typical Bart.

Kara was deeply in thoughts just as Bart began to start questioning about the contents of the book. Meanwhile Kon, he just wanted to read the book. “You got why we know about it, now give us the book.” He demanded hoping for her to actually give it. But he really should have known better. Kara refused and promptly ordered them both to sit on the floor facing her.

“Seeing as you already knew a bit about the Bat, I guess it’s time for the two of you to get into the loop.” She said smugly which utterly annoy Kon. But in a second the smile was replaced with a wide, joyful grin and once again, Kon felt like a stranger just suddenly replaced Princess Kara Zor-El.

“Did you know that King Kal’s real name is Clark?” she asked gleefully. "I've busted my bones out just to gather all these information about the King and our history!"

Both boys numbly shook their heads in denial and Kara looked as if she was expecting that reaction. She had lost all the air of hostility she exhibited earlier and Kon realized, in a way, she was acting like the Queen.

“Okay, listen up kiddies, it's story time!" She settled herself more comfortably in her seat. "Back before we were born, before the existence of the Kingdoms as we know it, there was a lonely boy called Clark…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's weird that we don't really know our siblings as well as we thought.
> 
> In our life, we have already resigned to a certain role: a person, a child, a sibling, a student, a friend and so forth. To be able to simply abandon these role so to be a self varies with the people: some figure it's hard because they are too absorbed by one of the roles and couldn't imagined themselves as someone else. For others, they might never had these other roles and be themselves so easily. Imagine the stranger next to you is in a role of their own and their self is entirely a different thing. Imagine if that self could have been the one that brings you happiness. 
> 
> Won't the world suddenly become so much bigger?


	5. The War of the Tower

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Princess Kara finally revealed the King's beginning and the world-altering War of the Tower which gave birth to the Kingdoms of Justice. 
> 
> How did it all began? And would the history lesson finally reveal the mystery of the Eastern Continent and at the same time, of the legendary Bat?

**Chapter 4**

The War of the Tower

 

Clark was different from his loving parents, he was as strong as a thousand oxen, he could fly high as a bird and he could never be hurt by any weapons. Yet he was loved and raised as happy as a child should be. But as he grew up, so did his gift and he began to feel lonely without anyone to relate to his plight. As he came of age, he decided to travel the world in order to fill the hole he knew was consuming his life.

 He discovered so much in his journey. He arrived in the main city of the Star, and met with a curious Civilian who fought with a bow and arrows. With him, Clark discovered the instinct of a hunter, the strength to restrain and the honour of a Vigilante. Clark learnt that even with his great power, without a clear instinct balanced with a strong will, it will become destructive nonetheless. A few days later, he thanked the archer and left for West.

His first meeting with someone like him was when he arrived in Central City ( _before it was named the capital of Keystone_ , Kara added) and met the Flash Guardian the first. For the first time, his speed was outrun by another. Clark learnt from the Flash Guardian to manoeuvre his speed and to be humble towards the Citizens as well as his enemies. He also grew to be even curious of the limit of his gift and challenge it. He continued West and head towards the West coast.

He reached the sea and decided to swim. Halfway across the ocean, he came across the King of the Sea ( _the first King that existed before the creation of the Kingdoms_ ) and, upon witnessing his noble heart and otherworldly strength, was requested for his aid over a matter below the sea. Together, Clark and the King of the Sea went on a quest to save the Kingdom of Atlantis. His bravery was awarded and he received an eternal gift from the First King: the gift of friendship. Clark was then sent to the surface where he continued to swim until he reached the Island of Paradise.

There, he was severely attacked due to the majority female population biased view over men especially when the island was frequently attacked by the men from the mainland. There, Clark learnt to respect the strength of the Amazon women as well as the importance of standing in the side of truth. One of the Amazons had caught his interest: the princess of the Island. She was as strong as he was, as brave as he was and even more so than, as honourable as he wished to be. Clark fought side by side with her, he thought he had found the missing piece in his life, yet he was not satisfied.

His missing piece was still lost and he ached day and night. He bid her farewell one day and continued his travel.

Soon he arrived to the mainland; a prosperous city called Metropolis awaited him. He had been with individuals who were different from the Civilians, Vigilante, Guardian, Royal; thus for the following months, he mingled with the Civilian’s and lived their life. He met a Civilian woman whom he had truly fallen for, and a young man who he made friends with. He felt happy. He felt the hole in his life was gradually shrinking.

Until the day he heard a distress sound in the distance. Someone was asking for help yet it was not heard by his sharp hearing. It was a message heard through his mind. He searched and searched and finally he found him, hidden up high on the mountain by the Civilians who were later known as the Exiles, was a survivor of the Martian race. ( _Advisor J’onzz?_ Kon asked and Kara merely nodded) The Martian was locked in a cage, starved and dehydrated, in order to exploit his telepathic ability. The Civilians there attacked Clark with worthless weapon and as he rescued the Martian, he saw the mastermind of the cruelty. He had never forgotten a face which could invoke such hatred within him.

The one name Alexander Luthor.

The Martian was saved and he had then decided to go to the place above the highest of the sky for recovery. Clark followed, mostly because he was curious. Above the clouds, beyond the blue sky, they met a young Emerald Guardian. They were treated as guests among the Order of the Guardian and Clark learnt of his Kryptonian origin. It was as if a new world was opening its giant door, beckoning him to take that one step. Clark plunged in instead.

He returned to the land, and followed through the lead that was given by the Order. He travelled again until he reached a place so cold, and so brilliantly white, he almost missed the discovery of his Fortress. Within, he found, the legacy of his race and his true name, Kal-El of the House of El. It was more than he could imagined, more than he had ever expected, he felt as happy as the day he had fallen in love.

Then the Great resistance happened against all the Gifted Ones.

Each one of the Gifted was made as enemies of the Civilians. The Guardians, Royals, including the Vigilantes. Clark did not wish to abandon his lover so he stayed hidden. He neglected the danger of the Resistance and one day, when he was no longer able to resist his instinct to help those in need, he was attacked by a weapon of the Resistance. Just as he was about to be killed, a shadow attacked his assailant and destroyed the weapon.

His saviour was a creature of the night, a bat with eyes of pure coldness.

Clark would have thanked the creature if the other did not proceed to break the bones of his assailant in demand for answers. Good-natured Clark went to stop this act of violence but was also attack by the Bat. He retaliated and was surprised to realize the Bat was not any strange creature, but was frankly a Civilian in disguise.

( _Seriously? Man, I thought this story was going to be awesome…)_

_(Keep on listening. It gets interesting later.)_

Clark was strongly against the Bat. He was unlike anyone he ever met before. He was not like the archer, who helps people when he could. He had no conscious over the limit of his enemy. He was not a Gifted One. And most of all, he was a mere vulnerable Civilian abusing his more than average strength on others. And he wanted nothing to do with the man.

But when the Bat resisted Clark, he used a piece of the weapon that had severely hurt Clark and just a glance of it made the Kryptonian sick and vulnerable. The Bat had told Clark that if the shattered pieces were enough to make him vulnerable, then he would be knocking on death door soon. An enemy of the Bat had discovered the weapon and were distributing it to the Resistance.

Eventually, Clark and the Bat managed to work together and even recruited the other Gifted Ones to fight against the Resistance who, thanks to the Bat’s information, was demonizing the Gifted to gain control of the world superiority. It was no surprise to find the Mastermind behind the Resistance and the distribution of the Kryptonian weapon was the detestable Luthor. The Resistance was defeated and captured; the world regained their trust in the Gifted.

It was a gradual change between Clark and the Bat and Clark was respectful enough to understand the Bat’s motivation behind his violence. His home was the darkness, and violence was their native language. It was hard for Clark to understand but he took it as a part of his lesson in life: there will always be something that we do not agree with but it was needed to be done. He also admired the unbreakable will and resolve the Bat held in his grip, in order to protect his precious Kingdom of Gotham.

It was a lesson that matured the young Kryptonian more than his discovery of Civilian’s strength and the World above the Sky. It was the link that allowed Clark to think of the Bat as someone far more deserving than he was. It was also the first time he believed that the good in people exist even in a place void of light and warmth.

Not long after, the Tower of Justice was constructed as a tribute for the Gifted. It was built in the Eastern Continent, the home of the Bat who had created the tower as a contribution to the Gifted. The Bat claimed that as the Gifted, they must use their ability for the best of co-humanity so to prevent the rise of another mind like Luthor. It was supposed to be the tower that put the Gifted as protectors.

But it was all a trap.

The Tower was not a mere tower but a prison that had the capability to lock away the gifts. The remaining Resistance, with the help of the Bat, had taken over the Tower and the Gifted Ones were left powerless and vulnerable. For a brief terrifying period, the world no longer had their protectors. As much as he wanted to deny it, Clark could not forgive the Bat for this ultimate betrayal. None of the Gifted Ones could and they all agreed that the Bat was their true enemy.

The world was also enraged by the betrayal. All who would fight along with the Gifted assemble their armies for the War. They would destroy the land of darkness that gave birth to the wretched Bat as well as free their gifts from the Tower of Justice. Their fight was long and the War had cost many lives but it was all necessary. The Resistance was getting stronger and wilder, the Mastermind Luthor was truly ambitious and heartless.

He captured Clark and his friends so he could gloat to them as he tortured and slowly killing the Gifted. Clark was dying, but Heaven smiled down onto him, as at that moment, a bird had flown into the Tower dungeon and pecked on his restraints. Unbounded and vengeful, he freed his friends and together they regained their stowed away gifts. The War of the Tower began and it was a battle against bloodlust and mercy.

The Resistance fought for the kill and the Gifted fought for justice.

At midnight of the second day of the War, the Mastermind finally escaped the East Continent, but only after he activated a lethal explosive system at the heart of the Tower. Clark was running out of time, thus he instructed the rest to evacuate and protect the rest of the Civilians. He stayed behind to capture the missing Bat and to prevent the worst of the damage. Just as was predicted, the explosive erupted and the world changed.

The East Continent was destroyed into pieces. Black fire burnt the land and the sky was turned ash grey. Clark planned to cage the Bat within the ruined Kingdom until the polluted outcome of his own creation bring upon his death. Upon Clark’s instruction, the Emerald Guardian prevented the damages from affecting the rest of the world by creating a barrier and the King of the Sea washed the Black Flames with his sea. The extinguished flames created thick mist that covered the horrible scenery of destruction and even after the emerald barrier were taken down, the mist stayed.

After the War, the world was still threatened by the remaining of the Resistances which were later called the Exiles, as they were condemned by every Kingdom of the world. The warriors of the War of the Tower were awarded to be the World Leaders and in order to prepare themselves against the threat of another dangerous personas like the Bat and the Mastermind, Kingdoms were created. As the last representative of the Kryptonian race, Clark used his real name to represent the Royal Family of Krypton Kingdom. His friends had created the rest of the Kingdoms: the Amazon, Keystone, and Atlantis with the Order as the neutral party.

In Krypton, the eagle became the Kingdom’s Crest to symbolize the bird that had freed Clark and light had become the main feature of the Kingdom. Kryptons are bounded by loyalty, bravery and mercy. And the Kingdom held the responsibility of protecting the world outside from any threat that would come from deep within the darkness of the Eastern Archipelago: be it the Bat or the Exiles.

**  
**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> History is written by the Winners.
> 
> Any stories we hear from another, will always have more than one side of what actually transpired, according to the eyes of the Winner, the Spectators and the Loser. The Winner could not contain the need to add and suppress details in their version of the story, no matter how small or how big, and the Spectators would just nod their head and said: "That's what happened." This may due to the need of gaining a phenomenal name in history to gain support and trust among the people and to strike fear and unrest among enemies. Or they could have raised their altar high enough under the spotlight so that their great shadow could cover something from the eyes of the future.


	6. The Journal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The story had finally been told, but it was merely a story of the far past resulted from the princess's studies and information gathering. Now Kon and friends will finally take a good look of the found book that was said to hold the information on the notorious Bat. 
> 
> Is it even a book though? What information of the Bat will they even uncovered from it?

The Journal

 

As Kara ended her story, she was met with the twin face of awestruck. Kon and Bart had their mouths wide open and their eyes were storming with emotions. They looked amazed, disbelieved, shocked and maybe a bit confused by the story. She knew, they would be waking up from the stunned spell and will begin to ask questions. Questions that did not lie within this story she had forced out of Lois and Jimmy. Questions that had her researching the history of the Tower War and in particular the Bat like a woman possessed.

Just as Bart and Kon began to exchange opinions on the story, Kara carefully flipped through the first two pages of the book and gasped in surprise. Both boys immediately focused on her.

“What’s wrong Kara?” Kon and Bart each hovered over her shoulder to peek at the book. Their eyes widened.

“Oh my Rao, Kon. This is Kal’s journal during the Great Resistance!” She exclaimed excitedly. Not only was it a chronological record of the Great Resistance, but there were tokens slipped in and drawings of landscapes and architectures to figures and portraits. Kon was astounded to discover that King Kal was a great artist. There were drawings of a city with tall buildings and busy streets, portraits of the Queen, and of animals in nature.

“Come on! Read to us the first page, Princess Kara!” Bart requested agitatedly as Kon merely reduced to a nodding mess. Kara shushed them down with a mirroring excited smile. She too was anxious to know about the first entry.

“ **Friday, the 15 th day into summer,**” she began and Kon imagined the burning warmth of the yellow sun damped by the scent of summer rain. “ **the sun had been kind to me these days and I had been flying across the globe with lesser ease than I had been experiencing. Lois had been nagging about my constant disappearance from work but I really couldn’t help myself; in spring I had gone back home to help with Ma and Pa,** ”

“What’s a ‘Ma’ and ‘Pa’, Kara?” Kon immediately asked curiously.

Kara scratched her blonde head. “It’s short for mother and father. But... um, I don’t remember Kal talking about them before…” She looked at the heir with a sense of trouble. She had actually heard about them a little from Kal and Lois but Kon seriously hadn’t heard of Ma and Pa Kent at all? Even she had secretly met them on one of her travels despite Kal's prohibition. Did Kal forgot to mention it to Kon? Did Lois? Kara thought that she should invited him for another visit in the future, but for now...

She coughed and indicated that she would be continuing.

“ **Now that summer had finally granted me the days to break free, I have to thoroughly discover my Fortress and the technology hidden there. I never really had thought that there would be anything left in there aside from my family’s history and legacy. But B had been scolding me about how short-sighted I was being, and he wasn’t talking about my glasses there!** ”

“’B’? Is that a short for something too?” Bart whispered to Kon who shrugged. “Sir Beetle maybe? Or Sir Gold? Whatever, the King wore glasses?” he looked up at Kara with big curious blue eyes. Kara felt like she was melting under that gaze. She couldn’t believe how childish Kon was acting.

“ **Now that Luthor is beginning to move again, I need to get prepared as much as I could. I can’t really tell everyone that B is training me himself; they might go on a rampage that I had purposely allowed him to use the Kryptonite on me.** **~~If he was just a bit more trusting with the others, maybe they would like him better.~~ I don’t really mind him as he is though. And I like this little moments we share like any normal friends have…**” Kara stopped reading with a raised brow.

“There are pages torn out here.” She showed the jagged remains of two pages to her young audience who had also grew more curious. Questions were swarming their minds like unsettled honey bees. Who was this mysterious B? What is the Kryptonite that everyone was said to oppose against being used? What had happened in those torn off pages? Kara though, was quickly to settle their worries.

“We’re only missing his recollection of this B person. The next entry is fine. Kal’s describing the Kingdom of Gotham in her prime days and about an isolated island called Arkham. ‘ **… Let there be no other island formed from such madness and death. Arkham Isle housed the most vile and dangerous mind from the light of the world. An asylum for the darkness of Gotham that had taken shape of flesh and bones. It saddened me that the Bat too is one of the product of this tangible and corrupted darkness.** ’”

Kon and Bart gulped loudly. After hearing how bad the Bat will actually be in the war, both of them felt pity for the then clueless King Kal. “That is so wicked; the King was pretty considerate on the Bat’s dark home and the guy just went and took advantage of that.” Bart chastised the very thing that Kon was feeling. The King always looked at the best of everything, no matter how loss of a case it was.

The Bat was receiving so much of the King’s kindness and he repaid it with treachery. Kon gripped his heart. He remembered that he too had been repaying the King’s kindness with rude remarks and more problems. No wonder his tutors had been drilling into his head to be grateful.

Hell, he might as well be the second ‘the Bat’ in their eyes.

A thought suddenly knocked on his mind’s door. Was this the reason the King was so cold towards him? The thought had made a home inside his head and seemed to be planning to stay for a while.  

As Kara kept flipping further through the pages, she abruptly stopped at a two-paged illustration of darkness. “Oh, wow…” she breathed out making the two boys inched closer to her seat. Since she was trance by whatever she was looking at, Kon and Bart crept behind her to take a peek. The heir was suddenly struck by ice cold fear as his eyes met empty white slits.

It was a pencil sketch of a man dressed as a bat. He imagined it would be something ridiculous to wear, let alone to be afraid of. But it was not the outfit that defined the character in that book. It was the way he was presented, the way the King had drawn him and defined him in his own way.

Crouched at the edge of a gargoyle structure, overlooking the life below judgingly, the Bat was shrouded in black darkness. His face was covered by a black helmet made into the shape of a bat’s head and his armour was also dark fitting for a knight. There was a cape hanging from his shoulder blades, blown by strong winds and dispersing into a colony of bats. The Bat was staring straight at him, and the stare held a million burden of the world’s darkness.

The Bat was cold.

The Bat was darkness embodied.

Yet, it was mesmerizing, this darkness of his beckoned like a siren.

Before Kon had realized it, he was flipping the pages of the books from over Kara’s shoulder. There were more drawings of the Bat ( _a sketch, merely from memories Kon believed_ ), some vehicles, portraits, birds ( _not an eagle; smaller species_ ) and landscapes of a midnight city. Kal only began to write more and gradually lessened his drawings, Kon realized, as the date of the Tower of Justice grand opening was nearing. The journal ended after three blank days of the grand opening, with one small paragraph written in haste, anger and blood.

**“He betrayed us. I trusted him and he had planned our doom in the most torturous method he could come up with. We escaped from that tower and are now heading to the nearest city. I never thought that I would ever be wounded this much by a Civilian but it seems I was wrong.**

**I am always wrong when it comes to him…”**

Slowly, Kon felt the book was being taken out from his hand as something warm touched his cheek. Kara looked at him sympathetically but also in worry as she put the book aside and wipe his tears. But when did he cried though? Bart brought him some bread which he must have sped to the pantry to get. But Kon was still upset, and confused.

Why was he crying at all?

___________________________________________________________________________

Midnight came and Kon had the perfect view of the moon from the belfry. Bart had already left for his room to avoid wild suspicions by the other Flashes. But seriously, with Bart, anything goes. So it was just him and Kara lounging on the sofa, trying to break the awkward silence between them. Kon believed that he should properly apologize to Kara for her failed trip to Amazon.

“I’m sorry for being mad earlier, Kon.”

“Wait, what?” Perplexed, Kon looked at Kara in confusion. “Why are you apologising to me for? **I** messed up. I was the one that made Kal to cancel your trip.” Saying it aloud, it just made Kon felt even worse. Why did he used his telekinesis again…? Right, angry at King Kal. No freedom. And he caused more problems to others…

“Kon? Were you listening?” Kara suddenly shook him gently and almost causing him to fall off. “What?” Kon asked in annoyance. He was answered by a strong twist of his ear. Howling in pain, Kara ignored him in favour for retrieving the book from on top of her desk. When Kon had finally calm down from whining over his abused ear, Kara repeated what she had said but still with a prominent furrow of her eyebrows.

“I said that I overreacted this evening about my cancelled trip.” Kon almost snorted. The day Princess Kara did not overreacted is the day King Kal decided to swim in a pigsty. “To be honest with you, I was going there to meet with Princess Diana Themyscira to inquire about the War of the Tower period.” She flipped a page sulkily. “Did you know? I was told to train in Amazon when Kal refused to answer about the War of the Tower. When he realized that I could ask Princess Diana, he can’t suddenly cancel it as it would be obvious that he is avoiding the subject.”

“So be proud. Your defiance had actually put his mind at peace.” Kara smirked and Kon surprised himself by laughing. Who knew? Kon was not the only rebelling teen in the castle. His laughter was light and very contagious. Soon, Kara too was laughing happily. For the first time in a long while, Kon felt connected with Kara. It was… a reassuring feeling.

As Kara was still recovering from her laughter, she playfully teased Kon. “I was so ready to fly all the way to Amazon for information. And suddenly boom! Bart dropped a first-hand report of the event that was actually kept in the castle all along!” Again, both of them laughed hard.

But their laughter slowly dimmed into an uncomfortable silence as a thought appeared in their head. The journal was certainly an amazing discovery, but it was obvious that it was one of the King’s personal, private journals. It's troubling that Bart was able to find it at all...

Where did he said he found it?

_“Behind some shelves… inside a secret compartment…”_

The Library had a camouflaged shelf doors connected to the Royal Archive where the King worked so to allow easy access to the Library and at the same time prevent any unwanted wandering visitors.

“Oh my Rao…” Both Kon and Kara muttered fearfully.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The hardest story to write is the story of our own.
> 
> What's the use of a journal in the first place? We wrote down our thoughts, we sketch out what we see, and we jotted down the secrets we promised to take to our graves. All these would simply backfired one day and it was all our fault for writing our story down.
> 
> But it could be a lesson from the past; a reminder of something beautiful in our life we had forgotten; a scar of the mistakes we had disregarded; memories of those we had left behind and secrets we had forgotten ourselves.
> 
> A reader would be wondering what will happen to you and why you made the choices you had made.  
> The writer would either smile or frown knowingly, thinking "Why the HELL did I do that 5 years ago??"


	7. The Sound You Love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stealing a royal document, legal or not, is considered a treason, yes? 
> 
> Contemplating between keeping a secret from the King or giving up his only happy memory with Kara, which one should Kon choose? In fact, is it not weird at all to keep a secret from the King? For a Kryptonian king who could hear him running away from the kingdom, could secrets even be kept hidden?
> 
> Things get even more complicate when someone else wanted to join in the bandwagon...

The Sound You Love

 

          Among all their handful of fears, the wrath of the King is by far the worst thing the Heir and the Princess could ever fathom. The day that came after their mutual bonding, Kon and Kara discussed on the pros and cons of either returning or keeping the journal.

‘We will be killed,’ Kon had moaned.

‘We could discovered his past,’ Kara goaded.

‘Maybe we should asked Lois to return it,’ Kon suggested but Kara lamented,

‘Never will we find a fortune like this again.’

And so on it went, back and forth, they whispered in the Banquet Hall as they waited for the King and Queen to arrive for breakfast.

When their sensitive hearing caught the far off steps of the two Royals, Kon and Kara kept quiet and avoid each other’s gaze. They must not act out of place all of a sudden; before yesterday evening Kon and Kara had always been at each other throats and whispered conversations between them were unheard of.

The doors opened silently and the soft voices of Kal and Lois filled up the room. They took their seats as they were served their breakfasts. The silence during breakfast was expected and each of them ate accompanied only by their thoughts.

After breakfast, Kon had braced himself for Kal-El to question anything about the stolen journal. But the King had simply asked him and Kara on his study development. Kara had answered back in a bite which had, at first, shocked and annoyed Kon. But later, out of the King’s sight, a small hidden smile of her’s washed away his doubt with a warm feeling. Kon hid his smile too by taking a sip. Of course Kara was confident enough to hide the journal from Kal-El.

It was now a secret between the two teen. Them and Bart as well.

“Alright, where is this super awesome book about the shadowed island you two found?”

When Wally asked that out loud in the training courtyard, both Kon and Kara had tackled him down in lightning speed as two Royal Guards passed by on a routine patrol. Actually, they were more worried that Kal-El had overheard the loud mouth more than anything.

Kara, the sternest among them, hissed at Wally. “How did you know about that?!” Wally shrugged. “You really think that Bart could keep quiet about it? I heard about the book and the story you told all night long!” Kara gasped in stun as Kon face-slapped. At the same time, Bart was on a tree, challenging himself to collect as much of nuts he could in five seconds, completely oblivious to the tension from his undoing.

“Brilliant work, genius,” Kara grumbled out as she shoved Kon aside. “Hey, you’re the one who suddenly told us the story! I would have had told Bart to keep a lid on it!” Kon barked out but Kara ignored him and left the courtyard all together. The training session was officially over.

Wally looked alternatively between the grumpy Kon and the tensed back of Kara disappearing at a corner in confusion. He delicately tried to mend the situation with Kon. “If it made you feel any better,” he started with a tap on Kon’s back. “I didn’t listen to Bart. I just clamped his mouth shut with the pillow until he fell asleep…” Wally scratched his neck. “I know for a fact that the island is a taboo, especially in this Kingdom. That’s why I’m asking you two directly.”

Kon looked at Wally perplexed. “Wait, you’re interested in ‘that’ too?”

Wally eyes suddenly gleamed bright. “Are you kidding, man? Hell yeah I am! The stories revolving the islands are like goldmines in this age! The mystery of its impenetrable fog, the vicious inhabitants in its black sea, and all this rumours about its sun and the moon… ” Sensing that Wally was about to launch into another story telling, Kon held up a hand at him while subtly indicated to his ear and at the same time eyeing the castle.

_The King might hear._

Wally caught the gesture and clamped shut. He really looked like he wanted to tell his stories though; his freckled face was getting redder in frustration. Kon felt bad for him, he had never once thought that the sensitive hearing of the Kryptonians could be a problem for others. He suddenly remembered something King Kal had told him when he was still struggling with his powers.

He had been crying and writhing in his bed that faithful night, shutting his eyes, blocking his ears (almost to the brink of tearing it out), until the King ran into his room and held him down. He had spoken about control, being calm, and focusing on his voice. But it had been so hard since he was hearing the Queen’s footstep and anxious nail biting from two rooms away, Advisor J’onzz calling for the Wiccan Zatarra down in the lowest floor of the castle and from the distance, a bird was loudly chirping somewhere in the midnight sky.

A sweet sound to which he had focused on.

Once the buzzing mash of sound had tune down until Kon could only hear the chirping and the King’s voice, he finally heard what that was repeated to him:

“It’s scary, I know. But you will control it soon. Listen to the sound you love and everything will be drown by it. Be strong, child, you will be fine. Listen to the sound you love…”

Till this day, Kon could still hear that bird song.

Now that he thought about it, did the King seriously didn’t hear Kara’s story-telling last night? Nor Bart’s chattering of the BOOK and the ISLAND? In all seriousness, there were many dead giveaways that they had been talking about the taboo island and the stolen journal. Well, even Kara and he didn’t hear Bart yapping about the journal to Wally, mostly because they were panicking on the stolen journal crisis to focus on anything else.

Was the King choosing _when_ to hear things from far away and aside from that, he had restricted his hearing?

That could be the case; he hadn’t even come out to scold Kon to resume his training with Kara. He broke into an excited grin. This could work!

“Wally!”

“What?”

The speedster heir responded with a curious tone in his voice in contrast to Kon’s confident smirk.

“On second thought, why don’t you just tell me what you know about the island? I think we could be safe from any unwanted listening.”

Wally was gaping and sweating out indecisiveness and excess energy of desperately wanting to share a story. Then, he turned pale white. His eyes was focusing behind Kon’s head.

“What story about which island are you talking about, _Kon-El_?”

Kon froze.

 _‘Restricted his hearing, my ass! Now the King is behind me, having heard about the island and might be angry about Kara being angry and abandoned the training session. And so the deal is off, Bart might be sent back to Keystone and Wally won’t tell me his story and the island will be forgotten_ –‘

A heavy hand drop onto his broad shoulder.

Kon jolted sharply and the dried leaves in the courtyard was blown away completely by his telekinesis.  Even Wally was almost thrown off from his stand due to the shockwave. Kon turned around quickly to defend himself for using his ability without permission again.

“Wait, I didn’t mean to do that -!”

Kara smiled at him with satisfaction in her eyes. She looked proud of herself to be able to fluster Kon so much that he had accidentally used his unique power.

“Uh huh, you _sure_ you didn’t meant that, _Kon-El_?”

Kon was pissed off and at the same time at awe. “How did you do that??” He gawked at her up and down. “How did you change your voice into the King’s voice?” Kara laughed knowingly before returning to use her normal voice. “Voice box control, my dear Heir. Maybe you will learn it one day, if you can.” She winked but then turned serious again.

“Anyway, I came back because I heard what you said to Wally. And it’s a stupid and reckless thing to say, Kon!” Both boys precipitated anxiously, especially Kon. Obviously it was stupid, Kara had heard him so of course King Kal will hear them too.

Kara huffed out as if she expected the no-response reaction. “It’s a good thing that I’ve always keep an ear out for you. So come on, we’re going to that place.” Kon raised a brow as if asking “ _The belfry?”_ but Wally wore a puzzled face. “Where exactly, Princess?” The red-haired asked to which he was responded with: “The Library, of course. You’re going to write to us your story.”

“Why the Library and not the-” One sharp glowing red look from Kara and Kon had shut up effectively. “It’s the middle of the day and everyone will wonder where we had disappeared off to, especially when you are still under that deal with the King.” Kon face-palmed in frustration. “Why didn’t I thought of that?” Kara stuck out her tongue playfully.

“Because you’re a kid!”

That was completely not the issue here.

\--

Royal Archive, in the meantime

The sound was strong, loud, and _alive_.

He heard it went soothingly calm to a furious note.

Maybe the day had went from good and peaceful to stressful and chaotic.

Maybe the day had just ended for **him** even though for others, the day had just begun.

Maybe **he** was having those nightmares again as always? Aren’t there anyone that could make them go away this time?

Aren’t there anyone by **his** side anymore?

Something broke his concentration.

A knock on the door.

A word granted and Advisor Olsen poked his head in. “Your Highness, the Princess had requested for the training session to be replaced with this evening’s study session. She and the Heir are currently using the Library now. The young speedsters are also with them.”

A nod and a thank you for his diligence, Jimmy left him in the silence.

No, it wasn’t silent at all.

Kara and Kon were moving about in the Library and Bart was vibrating in his seat while Wally was searching for papers and pen. So it wasn’t Kon that’s doing the writings?

Should he keep an eye and an ear out for them? Just in case?

One muffled, far away scream and Kal-El tuned out the rest of the world.

He continued working on several documents until his meeting hour with Barry arrived, all the while listening to the sound he loved the most agonized in a personal hell. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Secrets are something really amazing, aren't they?
> 
> A secret is a form of trust in itself, but also acts as a lifetime bond. Honestly, how many stories have we heard or read about secrets that led to rifts in relationship, family and society only to discover that this secret was originally good intention? It is also very precious since it have a time limit. A secret is hardly relevant in the long-run as it is a relic of the past that hardly affected the future. Surely, many would see a secret as something that matters dearly to them and therefore it is of no concern to anyone else.
> 
> But what if this secret that was thought to be such a small precious thing, actually involved the fate of many others? Who knows how many secrets there exist in the world that could have either kill someone, broke someone, save someone or brighten someone's life. A whole lot of trust and bravery are needed if a secret is revealed, and the aftermath would depend solely on the person who had kept the secret and the rest of us. 
> 
> Because everyone have their own thoughts on how precious a secret is. Is it worth it? Is it worthless? 
> 
> Who knows?


	8. The Exchanges

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> To escape the hearing of the King, our heroes decided to use the traditional method of communication; writing. Wally claimed to know something about the Eastern Continent, Kara claims a bundle of theories, Bart is too excited all of a sudden, and Kon?
> 
> He just wanted to hear the stories.

The Exchanges

 

_Wally_

**I never been so grateful to have super-speed as I am now, because writing all that I’m gonna say instead of actually saying it? Not a fun idea to dwell on, thank you very much. So, moving on, during my rounds with Artemis, Wondergirl and Cyborg in the white desert plateau, near Belle Reve Fortress, the number of stories and rumours of some daredevils who had tried to enter the Eastern Sea was unbelievable!**

**At first, I was interested by the rumours under some theories that the Exiled may had used the Archipelago as a base again and planning something bad. But after a while, it got a bit more personal, these _stories_ are beyond your wildest imagination. It is so remarkable that I had no problem to believe that the previous Kingdom of Gotham was nicknamed the City of Corruption in the early ages. She was not corrupted by crimes then, no, far from it. Gotham was an embodiment of all the darkness in the world: its infectious madness and its hopeless silver lining. These corrupted the souls that which live in this kingdom.**

**The earliest story I managed to jot down as keepsake was from an old inhabitant of Gotham. The old woman was so frail but her voice was in awe when she recounts her homeland, almost as if she had missed the fallen kingdom. She told me: “** _Gotham is such a painful place to grow up in, but it is the place where us humans learn to be more than just a useless pile of flesh and bones. I remember a time when it prospered miraculously under the rule of our beloved King and Queen. The darkness seemed to have faded, the fear dwelling in the crevices of the kingdom dissipated, and for once in our life, we believed in a brighter future... But then, I left to follow my husband to travel the world. The last news I heard of my dearest Gotham was of her destruction in the war. How sad…”_ **She then began to sob so our conversation ended there.**

**Other stories I gathered were greatly influenced by mythology and bullcrap. Some said of the thick fog veiling the Archipelago is made from the breath of the nightmarish Bat. Any flying projectiles will lose its navigation and circled the sky until they fell into the cold waters like stone. And even in the water, it is said to be toxic and filled with mutated life forms. A ‘witness’ claimed to have seen a 20 foot long tail of a crocodile before he paddled away to the nearest shore. There are more about some deadly plants and prowling freakish animals, but these pale in comparison when I heard the rumours of its sun and moon and this was said by the Legendary Archer, Lord Oliver Queen himself upon our rest in Star City.**

**“** _This story is best to keep in silence, for not many known of these facts aside from King Kal-El himself and the Royals of the Four Kingdoms. Once, out of bravery or tomfoolery, I breached the fog of the Archipelago and survived the sea. Clad in my trusted gears as well as a protection mask as caution, I rowed a fisherman boat from the shore of Star City across the toxic sea. As the rumours went, my navigation kit went haywire and the water sample I took from the sea contained multiple hazardous irregularities. No soul should touch the waters with their bare skins, was my thought at that moment._

_Then I reached the rocky shore of the continent. My instinct quickly made me realized I was in the ruins of Bludhaven Port, an important port city for the once Gotham. Another important thing I realized was the darkness. The orb of Sun was visible through the veil yet it seemed to be distorted; as if the warmth was siphoned away and the light itself was corrupted into pale reddish hue. As I explored the ruins, I sensed no other life forms in the land: there were no animal tracks, no lively greens, no crickets nor even a fresh water spring. It was a jungle of ruins, concretes and despair. For a brief moment, I had regret._

_I turned to leave afterwards for there were nothing left on the island to fear… but the remains of the destruction was overwhelming and the environment was too corrupted to be cleansed. King Kal was right to say the land was dangerous, health wise that is. I returned with the objective of solidifying his argument in the upcoming meeting. I didn’t even managed two footsteps when I was suddenly under attacked._

_These group of … ‘monsters’ sprung out of the shadows and I swear to God, they tried to take a bite out of me. Deformed humanoid beings, with beast-like qualities, as if taken out of a chapter from an old fairy tale book; my arrows managed to take most of them down but I was quickly running out since I didn’t anticipated a full-on battle. And their Boss, a hideous grotesque creature where its right side was a deformed purple mess as the left was mostly humanly intact, had broken my arm and tried to rip my mask off. I didn’t know then why the action had seemed threatening, all I did was making sure he didn’t succeed, even as he beat me into a bloodied mess._

_I was on the brink of losing consciousness when a shrill sound pierced the scene. It was deafening, and my eardrums was closed to exploding; the monsters shrieked in fright as they turned tails and fled. The Boss, on the other hand, had simply ignored me and went to fight the other creature. I caught a glance of the fight and I saw something beautiful; pale wings, long bird-like legs and golden locks. A Harpy was what it was when I searched through the mythology books during my recovery at home. I passed out then and there with the image of a bloody red orb staring down at me._

_When I woke up, it was to the familiar warm bright Sun kissing my skin on the sandy shore of Star City with the fisherman boat marooned right nearby. I would love to think of everything as a wild dream, but my clothes were torn and bloodied, my own bandages were used on my wounds, and the water sample I took was still in the boat; safe and sound. I immediately wrote a letter to the King and in the meeting of the Four Kingdoms, the Eastern Continent received a new level of wariness; the surviving life forms there had mutated due to the irregularities found in the waters as well as in the air. If my mask had been torn off on the island, I myself would have been contaminated._ **”**

**Lord Queen then told me about the second expedition to the Archipelago led by Advisor J’onzz. However, as soon as the troop reached the invisible borderline of the Eastern Continent, several Gifted soldiers claimed to have lost their powers and even the Advisor himself reverted to his original defenceless form. The expedition was aborted and upon their report, no one else dared to enter the waters nor raise any more suggestion of claiming the land. Now all marine access point within the continent radius has a special squad solely for any risk of the mutated beings to reach the mainland. The Atlantians too are patrolling the waters and warned any boats that gets too close.**

**So as you can see here, the Eastern Continent is basically impenetrable and under strict lock down. There are mutated monsters living in there that haven’t launch an invasion yet and the Gifted will lose their powers if they even brush the periphery. Hella rad, am I right or am I right? XD**

\--

_Kara_

**That was an amazing information Wally!**

**I didn’t know much about the Eastern Continent after the war aside from its contaminated environment. Now that I think of it, I’ve only been relying on books and stories of the past to discover the true story behind the war and the current world politics. This new information made it understandable that the continent is a no-man’s land and that the Atlantean is one of the most influential Kingdom after Krypton despite the fact that Central Kingdom is the hub of the World trade and growth and the Amazon as the main natural resources of the mainland.**

**I searched for Bludhaven through the journal, and I found some interesting information. I’ll summarize it in a few understandable words since Kon got tired from reading your wonderful story, Wally. Shame on you, Kon.**

**First, Kal mentioned that Bludhaven was an important town as Gotham Kingdom was isolationist and only a few companies traded with the mainland. The largest was known as Wayne Imperial Trading Company which belonged to the royal family themselves; the Wayne royalty. The others were mainland companies that were personally given permission by the crown and Bludhaven was the only port that take outside cargoes.**

**In another entry, Kal wrote that all the transaction done within the Kingdom was monitored by the Bat. Any suspicious or unwanted treaties were instantly terminated or made to, um, ‘disappeared’. In fact, any uprisings or crimes happening in Gotham Kingdom was quickly dealt with by him that at one point, the Bat was dubbed the Dark Knight of Gotham. This title was used widely that it had convinced Kal to consider the Bat as a good force.**

**After the war, there was a global crisis as the Human population powerhouse, the Wayne royalty was said to have died along with the Kingdom and the citizens there. There were many theorist that blame the Gifted for murdering the innocence in their battle; not to mention that the WITC was a major contributor to the world economy. The debate was split between the supporter of the Exiles and the Gifted; the favour falls for the Gifted which led to the creation of the Four Kingdoms. Remains of the WITC was handed down the Wayne’s external advisor that was stationed in Central City, one Mr Lucius Fox.**

**My theory is that the Bat had an iron grip over all happenings in Gotham and he might also had the royal family manipulated under his grubby fingers in order to spread his control; why else hadn’t Kal told the Waynes that the Bat was dictatorially meddling? All those lives could have been saved but Kal didn’t saved them…**

**Maybe the Bat DID have a gift? A gift of manipulation? Maybe Kal had no other choice but to abandon the Kingdom of Gotham because they’re corrupted to the core?**

**MAYBE THE BAT WAS THE SOURCE OF GOTHAM’S CORRUPTION NATURE?!!**

\--

_Kon_

**I think you’re getting a bit too excited there, Kara. Pretty obvious that the Bat had took control of Gotham and was planning to expand his influence towards the mainland. In order to do so unsuspiciously, he get close to the world powerhouse: King Kal. Seriously, no one in the world could go against him once he set his mind on something. Well… Maybe Princess Diana… and Lois. But the point here is that, Kal won the trust of the Humans, the Atlanteans, the Amazons, the Flash Guardians, the Vigilantes and the freaking Order of the Guardians!**

**It’s the fact of life: have Kal-El as your ally and the whole world will be your ally.**

**Besides, I was critically reading Wally’s story. There were some part that I wasn’t getting. Doesn’t it bother anyone that a possibility of us losing our goddamn gifts are right in our backyard?! ! Hell, if I was the King, I would sent people over there to deal with the ‘whatever the hell was doing the thing’ so that no one ever finds out about it! WE shouldn’t know about this! Any Gifted would vote to destroy this problem rather than posing some squads all across the East Coastline and wait for the next war. **

**I don’t get why everyone is ignoring the problem rather than fixing it. The Vigilantes could easily do the job if the Gifted couldn’t. The Archipelago is dangerous and should be dealt with accordingly.**

**BTW: I OBJECT your theory! Wally said that Gotham had always been a corrupted land and in the journal, King Kal said the Bat was a product of Gotham’s corrupted darkness. Not the opposite. Take that, HAH!**

\--

_Kara_

         **Woah, there. You’re getting too full of yourself, Kon! We’re not talking about destroying a continent here, we’re just discussing, remember?**

**True, knowing that something dangerous like this is possible, and is happening, is a huge risk for all the Gifted population. Even more if the Exile found out that their old technology is still functioning and in this large of a scale: war is another probability.**

**Don’t you think that this was exactly why Kal chose to keep quiet about it? Until just now, I thought the special squad was for public safety and confidence; to catch the Exiles who tried to enter the continent or was washed ashore.  **

**And truth to be said, there are some Gifted that would probably rejoice at hearing this news. Some gifts are unbearable for some and they wish for a ‘cure’. These people are the most common target of the Exiles: right now there are many regimes in educational platform all across the globe to train their powers, but there are no such method of curing the gifts. In some resources, I read that Luthor promised a lot of parties that his revolutionary movement was meant to help the unfortunate Gifted that was shunned by society. He promised that he wanted to bring Humans and the Gifted on an equal footing and their rights equally treated; where gifts could be a personal choice.**

**Imagined, a chance to take and provide gifts for ANYONE.**

**If the Archipelago phenomenon was studied and further refined, this might be Luthor most successful legacy. We could really take away the gifts and allow mutation on the Humans like the Harpy and the monsters. People would DIE to get this power over the gifts!**

\--

_Wally_

**Holy shit Kara.**

\--

_Bart_

**I vote to take the power before the exiles!!**

\--

_Wally_

**No Bart! We don’t want that! You don’t need that!**

\--

_Bart_

**I WANT IT!**

\--

_Wally_

**This is why we don’t talk about ultimate power with Bart.** **Now he’s obsessed!**

\--

_Kara_

         **Bart, we’re just playing with theories here. There’s no such thing as power over the gifts. Luthor did made those promises back when he was trying to win the Metropolis election but only to gather votes. And the cure that he claimed was created to help people? It was used to fight against the Gifted especially against Kal and his friends. This research was what created the Tower of Justice that trapped the Gifted.**

**If such a power did existed, Luthor had destroyed it himself in his escape. The residue is now clinging in the Archipelago environment and the effect is mutating everyone in direct contact. It’s uncontrollable and unpredictable. There is no way that it could be cleansed or remotely studied upon. Right, Wally?**

\--

_Wally_

**Gold star for the Princess!**

**That was what Lord Oliver had said; the research done on the samples taken from the water was only brief since the irregularities became contaminated in our clean environment. It just ‘poof!’ and disappeared. The Star City R &D lab had only managed to match the components from the water with the traces on his clothes. Aside from that, there are just minor trace of the stuff on his skin and blood sample; easily washable with a thorough shower and seven glasses of water.**

**He had no idea though when I asked if the same thing will happened to the monsters in there if they ever got out. I think they knew that they couldn’t survive outside of the Archipelago so they never get out? Maybe they’ll go ‘poof!’ and disappear too?**

\--

“COOL STORY, BRO!”

Bart shouted out of the freaking blue in the otherwise quiet Library that both Kara and Wally tumbled out of their seats in surprise. A heavy ‘thump’ was heard somewhere nearby as well, but they ignored it. Wally shot off from the floor, glaring at the young speedster. “What the hell Bart?! We told you to write! Do you want to be chopped liver, huh?!” Wally nagged as Bart dragged Kon away with him. Kara raised a sharp brow.

“And just WHERE do you two think you’re going?” she asked condescendingly. Ready to explode at whatever answer she was about to get.

Kon seemed to flounder around for an answer himself as he looked back at Bart unsurely. Bart shot a devious look at the two young adults with a wide grin. “Seriously, Kon and I were getting _bored_ from just ‘reading’,” he mocked the word with an unsavoury expression. “So, we’re gonna go out and play where it’s a gazillion time more fun then you guys! See ya!” He sped away with Kon in tow, effectively escaping Kara’s wrath.

“YOU TWO UNGRATEFUL BUNCH OF INGRATES!! I WILL RIP YOU APART!!!”

“We’re going to fucking die, Bart. We’re so dead… Dead…” Kon echoed hopelessly as he rocked back and forth on his bed. They didn’t even went outside, they just ran a lap around the indoor garden and then Bart led him straight into his room, bolting the doors while he was at it too. Kon had no idea why Bart had done what he did: sure they were bored from all the reading and waiting for the writing to finish, but it WAS interesting!

Up to the whole ‘power over the gifts’ part.

Kon sat still as his mind wandered on the idea. Even as a theory, it would have been great if such a thing existed. If it did, he might be able to get rid of his gift. Not all of it, of course! Just… the one that’s making the King and everyone else uneasy.

He was one of the three remaining Kryptonians in the whole world, why was he the only one with the sudden out of place telekinesis? He still couldn’t fly as well and his strength, speed and invincibility were the weakest among them. Kon gritted his lip and scrunched up his eyes in frustration. Just why? Why him? Why? Why? Why?! Was there something wrong with him?!

Had he… Had he also… mutated…?

Kon jolted from his reverie when Bart jumped onto his bed like a cannon. “Woah! Bart, I may be made of steel, but that doesn’t mean my bed is!” Bart chortled as he playfully shoved a piece of paper into Kon’s face.

\--

_Bart_

**I want to remove my gift, what about you?**

\--

The line might as well be written in hieroglyphic ( he was pretty sure Bart knew how to write those) because Kon couldn’t make heads nor tails of the sentence.

“Why the hell would you even-?!”

A second of writing and Kon got the paper shoved into his face again.

\--

_Bart_

**I want to remove my gift, what about you?**

**I’m getting too fast for reality. Literally. At this rate, I will ‘poof!’ and disappear.**

\--

Kon stared at the paper unblinking.

Bart was… dying?

“You’re joking. That’s not even the least bit funny, kid.” He growled out but the bite was absent. Bart was still smiling as he waved the paper side to side but now, Kon noticed the wrinkle between his brows and the loss of twinkle in the other’s eyes. Bart wasn’t even claiming or denying anything. Kon suddenly felt heavier, his mouth felt numb and his eyes stung.

The Krypton Heir sighed loudly as his head fell onto Bart’s small shoulder.

“You’re serious, huh?”

“As I never been.”

“Were you planning to tell me, if we had never started all this history discovery bullshit?” Kon mumbled out angrily, still refusing to raise his head from his position. His head was pulsating like crazy.

Kon felt Bart’s smaller hands rested on his back.

“Not at all! I already went through all the archives in Keystones, Star City, Krypton and Amazon (miraculously), and there were no records or even a theory that us Flash could have this problem. So I opted to just spend what I have left with everyone I care about, and do whatever the hell I want to do!” He laughed lightly but then quiet down.

“Now, I found a possibility to lose my gift and I feel like… there’s still a chance for me.” Kon felt Bart’s shoulder moved in a shrug. “Eeh.. Although, I’ll end up mutated and turned to god knows what and maaaybe unable to touch the mainland ever again… At least I’ll still exist, right?”

“Damn you, Bart. I’m so gonna kill you if this plan failed…” Kon grumbled then he pulled himself back. He took Bart’s head in his hand and proceeded to noogie the hell out of the wailing brunet. Kon released him from his torture a moment later and took the pen and paper that Bart had used to write before.

\--

_Bart_

         ~~**I want to remove my gift, what about you?**~~

~~**I’m getting too fast for reality. Literally. At this rate, I will ‘poof!’ and disappear.** ~~

**We’re going to get our gifts remove. You and me. No questions ask!**

\--

Bart stared at the crumpled piece of paper and then back at Kon who was already beginning to pack a rucksack. “You know, I was actually hoping that you’re gonna knock some sense into me and tell me that this was a stupid and dangerous idea.” Bart said nonchalantly as he watched Kon now packing a sleeping bag and his emergency snack. The Kryptonian merely looked at Bart weirdly at the statement.

“If that’s what you had wanted, you would have told either Kara or Wally. They would _gladly_ beat the sense and sensibility out of you before you could even disappear on your own.” Kon sneered as Bart happily laughed out an agreement.

“Hey, Kon?”

“What?”

“Don’t forget the blankets and some sour cream chips for me!”

“Yeah, sure… Chocolate too, I guess? Damn, you eat a lot…”

“Kon?”

“Hmm?”

“You’re my best buddy, you know that?”

“I better be, after all you had put me through…”

“I’m glad we met.”

“…”

“Don’t you ever forget that, okay?”

“…Thanks buddy.”


End file.
